An Economist’s Guide to Climate Change Science

Chapter 4 presented an extensive account of current understanding of climate change. The evidence that humans are having an important impact on the global climate system is scientifically compelling. And yet there are those who disagree and refuse to accept the evidence. Some of the dissent is based on a visceral feeling that the world is too big for humans to have the capacity to change it. Some is grounded, I believe, on ideology, on an instinctive distrust of science combined with a suspicion of govern¬ment, amplified by a feeling that those in authority are trying to use the issue to advance some other agenda, to increase taxes, for example. More insidious are dissenting views expressed by scientists on the opinion pages of influential newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). If scientists disagree, the implication for the public is that there is no urgency: we can afford to wait until the dust settles before deciding to take action— or not, as the case may be. Missing in the discourse triggered by these communications is the fact that, with few exceptions, the authors of these articles are not well informed on climate science. To put it bluntly, their views reflect personal opinion and in some cases explicit prejudice rather than objective analysis. Their communications are influential, nonetheless, and demand a response. I begin by addressing some of the general sentiments expressed by those who are either on the fence as to the significance of human- induced climate change or who may already have made up their minds that the issue is part of an elaborate hoax to mislead the public. There are a number of recurrent themes: The data purporting to show that the world is warming have been manipu-lated by climate scientists to enhance their funding or for other self- serving reasons.Climate science is complicated; scientists cannot predict the weather. Why should we believe that they could tell us what is going to happen a decade or more in the future? The planet has been warmer in the past; we survived and maybe even prospered.

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Human Exceptionalism: A Cognitive Barrier to Understanding and Engaging with Global Climate Change

10.31219/osf.io/36ymb ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Nicole Betz ◽

John Coley

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Global Climate Change ◽

Global Climate ◽

Natural World ◽

Attitudes And Behaviors ◽

Human Exceptionalism ◽

The World ◽

Climate Change Science ◽

And Behaviors

Although global climate change poses a real and looming threat to both societies and the natural world, the general American public is paradoxically disengaged with the issue. Across two studies, we explore the role of an intuitive pattern of thinking—that humans are exceptional to the rest of the world (i.e., human exceptionalist thinking)—on understanding and engagement of global climate change. In both studies, undergraduates thought about global climate change in exceptionalist ways—they correctly think that humans uniquely contribute to climate change, and incorrectly think that humans will uniquely be protected from the effects of global climate change. Such exceptionalist thinking predicted reduced eco-friendly attitudes. Further, people who thought about climate change in exceptionalist ways were less likely to attribute damage from recent hurricanes (i.e., hurricanes Michael and Florence) to global climate change, an attribution that is closely linked to both mitigating attitudes and behaviors. We discuss implications of exceptionalist thinking and potential interventions thereof on climate change science understanding and engagement.

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Envisaged transfer projects: New technologies in the water sustainability

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-1466 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Naseer Ahmed Abbasi ◽

Xiangzhou Xu

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Global Climate Change ◽

Water Scarcity ◽

New Technologies ◽

Global Climate ◽

Water Shortage ◽

Environmental Aspects ◽

Water Shortages ◽

The World

Abstracts: Influenced by global climate change, water shortages and other extreme weather, water scarcity in the world is an alarming sign. This article provides evidences regarding the Tunnel and Tianhe project&#8217;s feasibility and their technical, financial, political, socioeconomic and environmental aspects. Such as how to utilize the water vapour in the air and to build a 1000 km long tunnel project to fulfill the goal of solving water shortage in China. The projects are promising to solve the problem of water, food and drought in the country. In addition, the telecoupling framework helps to effectively understand and manage ecosystem services, as well as the different challenges associated with them. Such efforts can help find the ways for proper utilization of water resources and means of regulation.Key words: Sustainability; water shortage; transfer project

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Hindu Kush Himalayan Ecosystem as a Common Concern of Humankind: Imperative for Better Regional Jurisprudence

Kathmandu School of Law Review ◽

10.46985/jms.v5i2.976 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 42-52

Author(s):

Debasis Poddar

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Global Climate Change ◽

Global Climate ◽

Regional Climate ◽

Critical Role ◽

Regional Climate Change ◽

Mountain Glaciers ◽

Common Concern ◽

Hindu Kush ◽

The World

Hindu Kush Himalayan region (hereafter the HKH) - with 3500 odd kilometres stretched in eight countries- is default resource generation hub for about one-fifth population of the world. The ecosystem-growing delicate these days- seems to play a critical role for the survival of flora and fauna along with the maintenance of all its life-sustaining mountain glaciers. Ten major rivers to carry forward hitherto sustainable development of these peoples fall into question now. Further, in the wake of global climate change today, the delicate HKH ecosystem becomes increasingly fragile to unfold manifold consequences and thereby take its toll on the population. And the same might turn apocalyptic in its magnanimity of irreversibledamage. Like time-bomb, thus, climate ticks to get blown off. As it is getting already too delayed for timely resort to safeguards, if still not taken care of in time, lawmakers ought to find the aftermath too late to lament for. Besides being conscious for climate discipline across the world, collective efforts on the part of all regional states together are imperative to minimize the damage. Therefore, each one has put hands together to be saved from the doomsday that appears to stand ahead to accelerate a catastrophicend, in the given speed of global climate change. As the largest Himalayan state and its central positioning at the top of the HKH, Nepal has had potential to play a criticalrole to engage regional climate change regime and thereby spearhead climate diplomacy worldwide to play regional capital of the HKH ecosystem. As regional superpower, India has had potential to usurp leadership avatar to this end. With reasoningof his own, the author pleads for better jurisprudence to attain regional environmental integrity inter se- rather than regional environmental integration alone- to defendthe vulnerable HKH ecosystem since the same constitutes common concern of humankind and much more so for themselves. Hence, to quote from Shakespeare, “To be or not to be, that is the question” is reasonable here. While states are engaged in the spree to cause mutually agreed destruction, global climate change- with deadly aftermath- poses the last and final unifier for them to turn United Nations in rhetoric sense o f the term.

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GEOLOGICAL MEMORY OF STARUNJA – AS THE COURSE OF PROTECTION OF THE WORLD NATURAL HERITAGE IN CARPATHIAN REGION OF UKRAINE

Scientific Bulletin Series D : Mining, Mineral Processing, Non-Ferrous Metallurgy, Geology and Environmental Engineering ◽

10.37193/sbsd.2018.2.02 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 32 (2) ◽

pp. 15-25

Author(s):

Oleg Adamenko ◽

Yaroslav Adamenko ◽

Kateryna Radlovska ◽

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Global Climate Change ◽

Western Europe ◽

Global Climate ◽

Global Changes ◽

Upper Pleistocene ◽

Carpathian Region ◽

The World ◽

The Village ◽

World Natural Heritage

Paleontological location of the Pleistocene fauna of hairy rhinos and mammoths near the village. Starunya Bogorodchany district of Ivano-Frankivsk region (Prykarpathian, Ukraine) is considered as a paleoclimatic rapper of global changes and a stratigraphic "bridge" linking stratigraphic patterns of the Upper Pleistocene of Western Europe and the plain territory of Ukraine. This is important for the reconstruction of global climate change and the transformation of natural and man-made geosystems.

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The Legal Regime of the Technologies and Products Obtained Using GMOs: Discussion Questions

Legal Concept ◽

10.15688/lc.jvolsu.2021.4.27 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 195-204

Author(s):

Alexey Anisimov ◽

◽

Olga Popova ◽

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Global Climate ◽

Genetically Modified ◽

Genetic Research ◽

World Market ◽

Legal Regulation ◽

Legal Analysis ◽

Legal Regime ◽

Legal Method ◽

The World

Introduction: the paper examines the problems associated with the definition of the legal regime of the technologies and products obtained using GMOs. The experts in the field of genetics have not yet come to an unambiguous conclusion about the degree of harm or benefit of products obtained using genetic modifications. Russia has strict restrictive measures for the production of genetically modified products. Consequently, there is virtually no market for genetically modified seeds produced in Russia. Nevertheless, the world is actively developing industries for the production of genetically modified agricultural products, and the market for the production of seeds is “captured” by a small number of foreign companies. On the other hand, climate change dictates the inevitability of using genetically modified products, the need to accelerate genetic research, and the production of GMO seeds and food. In this context, the authors set a goal to find a compromise (balanced) legal regulation of the legal regime of the technologies and products obtained using GMOs. Methods: the methodological framework for the research is a set of methods of scientific cognition, among which the formal-legal method and the method of comparative legal analysis are the leading positions. Results: the authors propose to consider the bans or support for GMO products in the context of trends in global climate change and ensuring food security. The authors have made a comparative analysis of the provisions of the international norms and the Russian legislation on the research and application of GMO technologies and products, which helped to identify an unbalanced legal regulation of the use of the GMO technologies in Russia, which reduces its competitiveness in this area on the world market. Conclusions: the Russian legislation needs to minimize this legal imbalance, which puts researchers in the field of plant genetics and producers of GMO seeds and food in unequal (worse) conditions. The legal regulation should ensure the coexistence of organic (environmentally friendly) agriculture, traditional agriculture, and the use of the GMO technologies; the introduction of special labeling of GMO products; the broadening of the powers of regional authorities in the use of GMO technologies; as well as the application of the principle of “traceability” to GMO products.

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Transitioning to Low Carbon Mobility

Low Carbon Mobility Transitions ◽

10.23912/978-1-910158-64-7-3267 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Debbie Hopkins ◽

James Higham

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Global Climate ◽

Critical Role ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Substantial Contribution ◽

Transport Sector ◽

Low Carbon ◽

The World ◽

Environmental Transformation ◽

Context Specific

Since the turn of the 21st Century, the world has experienced unprecedented economic, political, social and environmental transformation. The ‘inconvenient truth’ of climate change is now undeniable; rising temperatures and the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme events have resulted in the loss of lives, livelihoods and habitats as well as straining economies. Increasingly mobile lives are often dependent on high carbon modes of transport, representing a substantial contribution to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the underlying cause of anthropogenic climate change. With growing demand and rising emissions, the transport sector has a critical role to play in achieving GHG emissions reductions, and stabilising the global climate. Low Carbon Mobility Transitions draws interdisciplinary insights on transport and mobilities, as a vast and complex socio-technical system. It presents 15 chapters and 6 shorter ‘case studies’ covering a diversity of themes and geographic contexts across three thematic sections: People and Place, Structures in Transition, and Innovations for Low Carbon Mobility. The three sections are highly interrelated, and with overlapping, complementing, and challenging themes. The contributions offer critical, often neglected insights into low carbon mobility transitions across the world. In doing so, Low Carbon Mobility Transitions sheds light on the place- and context-specific nature of mobility in a climate constrained world.

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Climate Change

Advances in Environmental Engineering and Green Technologies - Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change Adaptation Strategies ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-1607-1.ch006 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 162-187 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Shaikh Mohammad Kais

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Food Systems ◽

Global Climate ◽

Secondary Data ◽

Systematic Investigation ◽

Shrimp Farming ◽

Farming Communities ◽

The World ◽

Climate Vulnerability ◽

Key Features

Global aquaculture is one of the key features of present global agro-food systems. Though aquaculture is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, its growth trajectory is confronted with various challenges including climate disruptions. Since both aquaculture and climate change have regional variations, their interconnections are very complex and require systematic investigation. In various regions of the world, especially in the Global South, aquaculture countries are assessing those interconnections and devising resilience-enhancing programs for the development of the sector. Thorough investigations are required for a comprehensive understanding of the complex interconnections between climate vulnerability and resilience of global aquaculture. Drawing on primary and secondary data from the Bangladesh shrimp sector, and using conceptual lenses of global climate change and resilience, this chapter critically examines how the industrial shrimp aquaculture in Bangladesh is affected by climate disruptions and how the shrimp farming communities address these challenges.

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Climate Change

Oceanography and Coastal Informatics ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-7308-1.ch007 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 152-177

Author(s):

Shaikh Mohammad Kais

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Food Systems ◽

Global Climate ◽

Secondary Data ◽

Systematic Investigation ◽

Shrimp Farming ◽

Farming Communities ◽

The World ◽

Climate Vulnerability ◽

Key Features

Global aquaculture is one of the key features of present global agro-food systems. Though aquaculture is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, its growth trajectory is confronted with various challenges including climate disruptions. Since both aquaculture and climate change have regional variations, their interconnections are very complex and require systematic investigation. In various regions of the world, especially in the Global South, aquaculture countries are assessing those interconnections and devising resilience-enhancing programs for the development of the sector. Thorough investigations are required for a comprehensive understanding of the complex interconnections between climate vulnerability and resilience of global aquaculture. Drawing on primary and secondary data from the Bangladesh shrimp sector, and using conceptual lenses of global climate change and resilience, this chapter critically examines how the industrial shrimp aquaculture in Bangladesh is affected by climate disruptions and how the shrimp farming communities address these challenges.

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Climate Change and the Health of Urban Populations

Urban Health ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190915858.003.0014 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 129-138

Author(s):

Patrick L. Kinney

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Urban Health ◽

Global Climate Change ◽

Global Climate ◽

Urban Resilience ◽

Urban Populations ◽

The World ◽

The Face ◽

Urban Heat ◽

Risk Of Exposure

Global climate change represents one of the sentinel changes the world is facing and that will threaten population health in this century. In the context of urban health, climate change threatens to increase urban heat island effects, to change exposure to pollution, and to increase urban residents’ risk of exposure to natural disasters, among other phenomena. And yet urban innovation is central to the longer term solution to climate change from the development of innovative approaches that reduce cities’ carbon footprint to initiatives that increase urban resilience in the face of climate change threats. This chapter discusses the threat that climate change poses for urban populations and potential approaches that can mitigate this challenge toward improving urban health.

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